I know it’s not ordinary. But who ever loved ordinary? – The Imitation Game

Sometimes it is the people who no one imagines anything of who do the things that no one can imagine

That line was from the film “The Imitation Game”, starring Benedict Cumberbatch and Keira Knightley. A film that talked about Alan Turing, a key figure in cracking the Enigma code during the Second World War. This film not only explore his achievements but also his personal life. He was prosecuted for his homosexuality as it was a crime during that time and he allegedly committed suicide which led to his death. Although many have said that many of the aspects of this film was historically inaccurate but no one can deny that this was an amazing film.

Benedict Cumberbatch portrayed Alan Turing, the genius who portrays a characteristic of a person who might have Asperger Syndrome. He was smart but ignorant. He could not get jokes and was all to himself. He rarely open up to others and are very good in keeping secrets. Which at some point share a similar character traits as Sherlock Holmes from the TV Series Sherlock, and also the series that brought Benedict Cumberbatch to international recognition. Hobbit’s fans might also known him as Smaug, the dragon that said “I am fire, I am death.” In my opinion, his experience in portraying the famous Sherlock Holmes has made it easier for him to portrays Alan Turing, but even so he still did that in the most beautiful ways. He was able to make me feel anxious in every action that was occurring despite it was not an action movie. Not forgetting his voice. His deep voice can put many viewers into a trance. Until now I am still amaze with his ability to acted out such long lines and sometimes with a straight face. In the beginning of the film we saw Alan Turing was sitting at Denniston’s (Charles Dance) office for a job interview. I am not sure if many of you notice this but through out that seconds from the moment the camera shot him sitting til the moment Denniston stepped inside his office, Benedict did not blink at all. I found that he must have put some great effort in not blinking at all. One tiny major problem was that I hope in the future film, there won’t be any scene of Benedict’s running. His facial expression turns out to be really daunting while he runs.

But there will be this question inside my head… Was this a type casting? Did Benedict get this role because of what he did as Sherlock Holmes. Don’t get me wrong, I am a huge fans of him. In fact I think I might be a Cumbercollectives. But asking this question was inevitable.

As for Keira Knightley who portrays Joan Clarke, Turing’s ex-fiance. Her performance receive quite critical opinions saying that she was too plain. I must say that I disagree with this statement but I think there are many women who can play this characters better than she did. I must praised her chemistry with Benedict Cumberbatch and her ability to stay as calm and as loving as possible.

Over all the movie was very brilliant. It was uneasy to make such historical film to be enjoyable. Although I do worry about the comments that have been made about the inaccuracy in its historical content nevertheless the story itself was beautifully written. I have not read the books that this movie was based on nor I have further knowledge of who was the real Alan Turing. But one of the biggest problem for me was this film did not manage to explore deeply Turing’s personality. I thought that this film was quite unclear in which point of view is this story was going to be told. I do understand that to some extent their goal was to show the world how great Alan Turing was. He was unfairly convicted for his sexuality despite all the government secrecy that he needed to keep. Even so, this film did not explore his greatness through that way. We know that he was great but I think they did not actually achieve the main point of view of this film. Yet again they managed to receive 90% from Rotten Tomatoes and of course commercially successful. Thankfully Leonardo DiCaprio was not picked to played Alan Turing because I personally don’t think that he was suitable for this character. I am very much satisfied that they choose Benedict Cumberbatch for this role. Comparing to “The Fifth Estate”, another film from Benedict Cumberbatch in which he portrays Julian Assange, the editor-in-chief of WikiLeaks, “The Imitation Game” was so much better from its storyline to cinematography.